Nomsa Mapongwana is assassinated

Thirty-four year old Nomsa Mapongwana, wife of chairperson Michael Mapongwana of the United Democratic Front (UDF) affiliated Western Cape Civic Organisation, was shot dead at night in her home in Lingelethu West. Mapongwana and her husband woke up to the sound of shots being fired from the front and rear windows of their house. Petrol bombs were thrown through the windows and set furniture on fire. Mr Mapongwana dragged his wife and children into the kitchen and hid underneath the table until the shooting stopped, when he found that his wife had died from a bullet wound in the chest. Though it was not immediately clear who was responsible for this attack, it later emerged in a report of the Urban Monitoring and Awareness Committee (UMAC) that neighbours had apparently seen four balaclava-clad men run from the burning house and jump over the back fence, from where they escaped in a white combi. To corroborate the neighbours' claim, a man working at the Lingelethu West Council vehicle depot reported that a security guard of the council had delivered a Lingelethu West minibus to the depot at 04:00 on 18 October and ordered number plates to be put onto the vehicle. Mapongwana's killing incensed Khayelitsha residents and they organised a mass protest to the Lingelethu West offices. On the eve of the march the offices were damaged in an explosion.